A Long Time Ago In Elemental Nations Far, Far Away
by LiveAndLetRain
Summary: In which Naruto is the avatar in a mish-mash world where two different sets of elemental nations are sort of...blended. Iruka's stress levels are through the roof, Sasuke and Kakashi are keeping secrets, and Sakura just wants to punch something. (A non-sequential collection of ficlets written for the fictober '19 prompts. Once they are all written I will post a chronological index)
1. Teaching Methods

_**Fictober Prompt 6. "Yes, I know. Your point?"**_

_**wordcount: 288**_

_**ft. Tsunade, Kakashi, and a Wild Sasuke appearing**_

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"That's not going to work with Naruto."

Kakashi doesn't acknowledge the earthbender standing on the ledge above him; focusing on Sasuke's drills in the valley below. "Yes, I'm aware. Your point?"

Lady Tsunade snorts and slides down to sit beside the boulder he is perched on, squinting in the light of the rising sun. "Just wondering how you're planning to tackle actually teaching him. I've never met such a slow learner." She drums her fingers against the side of the boulder, cracks shivering through the stone.

"So the waterbender told me." Kakashi answers. "Only I believe he phrased it differently."

"Aw," Tsunade sniggers. "Did he give you the 'learns by doing' lecture too?"

"Mm, something like that."

The two of them sit in silence for a few moments, watching Sasuke throw kicks and punches and gouts of flame at the air with impeccable form. Behind them, on top of the small cliff, a high screech fills the air, followed by a small earthquake as Tsunade's own student loses her patience with whatever irritating thing Naruto is doing this particular morning and makes her displeasure known.

The weight of all the years since last they spoke hangs heavy between them.

Sasuke leaves a scorch mark along the base of the cliff.

"So how _do_ you plan to teach him, brat?"

Behind his mask, Kakashi smirks, not taking his eye off Sasuke. "I believe I have just the way for our little avatar to 'learn by doing.'"

Tsunade looks between him and his student, one perfectly shaped eyebrow arching in what might be amusement. "Once you think he's ready, let me know. We can throw Sakura in there with them."

Kakashi's smirk grows just a little wider. "Might be interesting."

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_**This is the first of a collection of ficlets I'm writing for fictober, all of them set in the same universe, but posted non-chronologically. (because I'm writing for prompts here.)**_

_**If you like it, please leave a review!**_


	2. Rice & Priorities

_**Fictober Prompt 7. "No. And that's final."**_

_**Wordcount: 509**_

_**Featuring: Iruka & Naruto with a brief appearance by Kakashi**_

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"Pleeeeeeeease?"

Iruka didn't turn around, knowing it would be that much harder to remain firm if he actually _looked_ at the pleading blue eyes down by his elbow.

"It isn't safe, Naruto." He says instead, choosing to focus on the pot of rice he's trying very hard not to burn. (Cooking on a stove was hard enough, over a campfire is so much worse and they really can't afford to lose any meals right now.)

"We'll be _really_ careful, promise!" Moon and Ocean he's taken to _touching_ Iruka. Bouncing up and down and yanking Iruka's arm with him by the grip he now has on his elbow. Iruka has to drop the wooden spoon into the pot in order to keep from knocking the whole lot into the fire.

Damn Hatake and his tendency to disappear. He was the best at pulling together an edible meal of the lot of them. Tsunade didn't even try, Anko was forbidden from setting foot anywhere _near_ the cook-fire, and Iruka and Shizune were hit-or-miss. And with Shizune off in town doing reconnaissance and buying supplies…

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-"

"No! And that's final!" Iruka pried Naruto off his arm and turned his sternest glare on the boy, partly as an excuse to make sure he was okay after his extended whine.

He was perfectly fine. Not even winded. Damn airbenders.

"But we really will be careful." Naruto's sad face is just as powerful as ever, but Iruka is hardened by long exposure. He can stand firm.

"We'll stick together, and Sasuke and I won't even fight!"

Iruka doesn't even deign to respond to _that_ improbable claim. He's fairly certain that hundreds of years from now, Sasuke and Naruto's reincarnations will seek each other out from the opposite ends of the earth for the sole purpose of arguing the merits of steeping tea for two minutes versus two and a half. Or whatever other unimportant detail the two are fighting over when they die of old age.

"Someone tried to kill you again, Naruto." He says instead. "Yesterday. Anko and Master Kakashi still haven't been able to find out who. It would be incredibly stupid to go into town for something like a _festival_."

Naruto grunts and flops over onto the ground to pout up at Iruka. "I'm tired of hiding and never getting to _do_ anything. How am I supposed to be the avatar if all I do is run away?"

"You can't be the avatar if you are dead, either." Iruka feels compelled to point out, trying to pick the spoon out of the rice without burning himself. Where are the firebenders when you need them?

"But at least I wouldn't be bored!"

"Of course, wouldn't want to get our priorities confused." Iruka manages to snag the spoon, but from the smell of the rice, he might be too late.

"Did you know you're burning dinner?" Hatake slouches into camp as if he'd never left.

Iruka considers his chances of successfully drowning an imperial firebender with what he has in his waterskin. Disappointingly low.

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_**If you liked it, let me know in a review!**_


	3. The Avatar Afterlife Club

_**Fictober Prompt 13. "I never knew it could be this way.**_

_**Wordcount:491**_

_**Featuring: Naruto, Mito, Gaara**_

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"This is highly unusual."

Naruto grins up at the dignified lady sitting across the table. "Aww, come-on granny. It's not so bad is it?"

Mito (who is not, in fact, his grandmother, but rather his great aunt twice-removed or some such, as well as a previous life of his) raises one perfectly arched eyebrow and surveys the room. "Usually, when an avatar interacts with their previous lives it is done one-one-one and the setting is much more...formal."

"Yeah, I know." Naruto shrugs. "The first time I talked to Bee it was like that. But I like this much better. All the mist and stuff was boring."

"It has a certain charm, I suppose," Mito says dryly as Yugito and Yagura roll by, trying their absolute hardest to strangle each other, despite both already being dead for centuries. Mito sips her tea and watches with mild curiosity. Her predecessor finally comes out of the corner he'd been hiding in and wanders across the room to join them, looking very bewildered.

The poor boy is terribly shy. And hadn't been all that old when he'd died either. Not much older than Naruto is now, in fact.

He sits down on the floor next to Naruto, not taking his eyes off the rest of the room where a good half-dozen or so additional incarnations are engaged in various conversations and squabbles and, in the case of Rōshi and Utakata, a pai sho game. They sit in silence for a bit and Mito is reluctantly impressed by how Naruto restrains his usual exuberance in deference to the other Air avatar's reticence.

"I never knew it could be this way." Gaara finally says, softly. "Mostly we just...existed here. In nothingness. It was lonely."

Naruto leans in against his shoulder, blond hair mingling with red. His smile is a touch softer than his usual grin. It's a good look on him, Mito decides. Just because she was not able to show such weaknesses very often in her life does not mean Naruto should not be able to be better.

"Yeah, well. Now you aren't alone. Even if I'm not here all the time, you've got granny and the others!"

Mito should probably be less surprised at being volunteered. "As long as you do not call me granny." she allows, sipping her tea again. "You are technically older than I am." She still remembers the few, stilted conversations she'd ever had with her predecessor while accessing the avatar state in life. They had been very few and far between, as she reached adulthood and her mastery of her abilities far outstripped anything Gaara had ever been able to attain in his short life. She regrets now. Just a little bit. (Naruto has that effect, she has noticed. It is somewhat annoying and reminds her very much of her husband. If she didn't have irrefutable proof that he is her own reincarnation, she'd almost believe he was Hashirama's.)


	4. Never Again

_**Fictober Prompt 14. "I can't come back."**_

_**Wordcount: 419**_

_**Featuring: Iruka, Tobirama, and Iruka's Astronomical Stress Levels**_

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Iruka is very stressed.

He likes to think he usually holds it together pretty well, at least in front of Naruto. But Naruto isn't here right now, he's off meditating on push and pull which, given Naruto's usual experiences with meditation, Iruka is pretty sure was just an excuse to get him away from the...house. (Hut. It's a hut.) So Iruka is pacing. And maybe fretting. Just a little.

"Another band of mercenaries attempted to enter the swamp today."

Iruka continues pacing. "So they know we're here then. That's the second try in three days. They wouldn't send that many if they weren't sure."

"Most likely." The waterbending master steps up beside him, face turned out over the swamp. "They will not be able to reach you here. Not for now. But you should not linger."

"Where are we supposed to go?" Iruka asks helplessly. "Master Jiraiya said it wasn't safe to continue to the capitol to look for Asuma the way we originally planned, and Naruto has mastered airbending anyway. He's still not mastered waterbending though."

Master Tobirama hums, tilting his head to the side. His sightless red eyes seem to glow ever-so-slightly in the fading light reflecting off the swamp, and it combines with the ever-present mist about him and turns him into quite the eerie apparition. "He has learned enough of the basics that you should be able to well continue his education as you travel."

"Me! But!" Iruka flails. "I'm not qualified for that!"

"You have done well in your own studies." Master Tobirama replies calmly. "Never have I had a sighted student, much less an adult, who understood so quickly how to see through the water."

"Why can't you come with us! You are the best teacher he could ask for."

Master Tobirama stiffens, almost imperceptibly, and his face shifts into what might be an embarrassing pout. "No."

"Why not?"

"I cannot go back." Master Tobirama is definitely flushing now. The red tint showing easily in his pale skin. "The outside world does not know that I am here. I _have_ to keep it that way."

Iruka blinks. Confused. "Why?"

The aged master sighs, deep and weary. "Because I'll never have another moment's peace if Madara learns that I live." He turns to Iruka and he is beginning to look somewhat frazzled. "He'll come bursting in at all hours to drink my tea and complain about 'kids these days' and how standards have gone down and I _refuse_ to put up with that."

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_**Poor Tobirama. **_


	5. ETERNAL RIVAL!

_**Fictober Prompt. 15 "That's what I'm talking about."**_

_**Wordcount: 501**_

_**Featuring: Kakashi, Sasuke, Gai, and Iruka's POV**_

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As they collect more and more people it has become more and more difficult to pass unnoticed, but Iruka comforts himself with the knowledge that both Lady Tsunade and Hatake were quite capable of defeating most threats on their own, let alone together, or taking the rest of the party into account. (He's fairly certain that once Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stop bickering like a bunch of kittens dumped in a bathtub they will be unstoppable.)

So when a small cloud of dust appears on the horizon and comes rapidly towards them Iruka's reaction is less the wild panic of a year ago and much closer to a sort of tired resignation. (There's still panic of course, but it is dulled beneath the weight of exhaustion and familiarity.)

How sad is it, he muses as he watches the cloud approaching, shuffling into position to defend from attack, that being hunted is _mundane_ to him now.

Sasuke, who has the sharpest eyes, is perched up on Hatake's shoulders as soon as they become aware of the encroaching potential enemy. One hand up to shade from the sun's glare as he studies the dust-cloud.

"It's a small group." he reports. "No more than half-a-dozen. On foot."

Iruka eyes the cloud sceptically. "They are moving awfully fast for being on foot."

"They aren't big enough to be mounted." Sasuke shrugs, not looking away from the roiling dust. He squints. "I think...the leader wears green? Head to toe."

Hatake blanches. "Are you sure?"

Sasuke pauses a moment to study the oncoming group and then he actually _smirks_ and Iruka finds that perhaps more unsettling than anything else. "He does indeed." He actually leans down over Hatake's head to look him in the eye and his smirk turns into a full-blown bratty _grin. _It's an almost painful reminder of the fact that none of the children are even fourteen yet. "There's four of them."

Hatake appears to be considering options. "We could still run."

Sasuke hops down and actually sits cross-legged on the ground. "Why would we do that?" His grin has disappeared and he is now completely blank-faced, which is much more common for him

Hatake leans in over his student. "Neji. Hyuga."

Sasuke's eyes widen but before anything more can be said or explanations can be demanded a voice floats to them on the wind.

"_HELLOOOOOOO! WE HAVE FOUND YOU, MY ETERNAL RIVAL!_"

Hatake closes his eye and gives a sigh that Iruka is not sure how to interpret. Naruto is looking between his firebending teacher and fellow student with a look of great confusion. Sakura echoes him but Lady Tsunade and Shizune seem to understand a little better. Lady Tsunade looks downright _gleeful._

And a large green blur _slams_ into Hatake, knocking him down and sweeping him up into the loudest, most tearful embrace Iruka has seen in his life.

"_AH YES! MY RIVAL! THAT IS WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT! LET THE FLOWER OF OUR YOUTHFUL MEETING BLOSSOM!"_

What. The. Hell.

* * *

_**I have a huge soft spot for Gai. The hero Konoha needs but 100% does not deserve.**_


	6. Survival Skills

_**fictober prompt 16. "Listen. No, really listen."**_

_**wordcount 1083 (yes, it's longer. I have discovered that Sakura's pov is a lot of fun for me to write.)**_

_**featuring: Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke. Our beloved feral dumbass children.**_

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Sakura had hoped that the addition of another person her age to the party meant she would have an ally in the battle against Naruto's...Naruto-ness.

Sasuke was _something_ all right but it was _not_ an ally. If anything he was even more annoying than Naruto, though at least he was quiet in the mornings. (Sakura was a morning person by force and by habit. Not nature. Naruto is too much to deal with in the morning.)

She spends a lot of time these days wanting to bury them both up to their necks (or deeper) in rock just to get a moment's peace. And at this point she's pretty sure the only person who would try and stop her is Iruka; and Sakura suspects he'd only interfere because he'd think he should, and not necessarily because he _wanted_ to..

Because if Naruto on his own is A Lot, Naruto and Sasuke together are An Abomination That Should Never Have Been Formed.

They. Never. Stop.

It seems that every moment of the day they are bickering over _something_ and Sakura is really starting to wonder if they actually _need_ the avatar. It's not like the next one won't pop up in a decade or so. And as for Sasuke…

The firelord has plenty of potential heirs. (Which actually seems to be the source of some drama and could possibly be _why_ the younger fire prince is running around the backwoods of Fire Country with only a single bodyguard, but it's not like Sasuke or Master Kakashi have ever bothered to actually _explain _what is happening.)

All things considered, it's understandable that Sakura is wary at seeing Naruto and Sasuke crouched together, staring at something on the ground intently. Nothing that those two find mutually fascinating can possibly be a good thing. She approaches with caution, ready to smash whatever it is should the need arise.

She really isn't in the mood right now. They've been separated from the adults for almost two days and already there have been three different attempts on Naruto, (though to be fair, that second one might have been aimed at Sasuke) and one encounter with one of Master Tsunade's creditors who thought they could kidnap Sakura and hold her for ransom to get their money back. The last thing they need is _more_ trouble.

At least not until they've found food or water. Preferably both. Sakura's mouth is so dry she doesn't think she could eat. She really envies Shizune her ability to pull water out of the air right now. Though given that they are on the border of the Wind Desert, there might not be enough water in the air for even Shizune to use.

"What are you two doing?" She snaps, once she's standing behind them. Both boys jump and Sakura has to dodge the small burst of flame Sasuke throws at her. Naruto just flails and falls on his butt in the dust.

The world is so doomed.

"I hear water." Naruto says, pointing down at the sand he and Sasuke were staring at. "Underground."

Sasuke grunts. "And I told you, you're hearing things. There's nothing there."

Kurama, perched in Naruto's backpack, snarls at Sasuke.

Sakura, lured in despite herself, victim to her overwhelming thirst, crouches beside them, her gaze fixed on that same patch of sand. "You really think so?"

"Of course!" Despite being as dried out as she is, Naruto manages to muster his habitual enthusiasm from _somewhere. _

Sakura punches him to shut him up, and Sasuke for good measure, and leans in close to listen.

The sand crickets chirp loudly. The wind pushes the sand. And far up above, a hunting bird screams.

"I don't hear anything."

Sasuke smirks triumphantly at Naruto, who ignores him to lean closer to Sakura. "You gotta _listen._ No, really listen." He nudges her shoulder so she's closer to the ground. "It's down there, believe it!"

Sakura listens for another moment. "I still don't hear anything, Naruto."

Naruto flops back into the sand, looking disheartened. "Man, I wish Iruka or Shizune were here to tell us if there's water."

Both Sakura and Sasuke stare at Naruto in dumbfounded silence for a moment.

"_YOU IDIOT!_" Sakura shrieks, "_YOU'RE A WATERBENDER TOO!_"

"_Hn_."

"Oh." Naruto blinks up at them. "Yeah. I forgot about that."

Sakura screams in inarticulate rage and winds back to punch his stupid face in. Naruto sits up, waving his hands in front of his face, sheepish grin already plastered on. "Hang on, at least let me check and see if its there first, okay?"

"Fine!" Sakura lowers her fist and the grains of sand that had started levitating around her feet settle back to the ground. "But make it quick!"

Naruto scrambles back up to kneel in the sand across from her and closes his eyes. Frowning in concentration.

Sakura sits back on her heels and waits. Sasuke stares at Naruto. Sakura stares at Naruto. Naruto frown harder and opens an eye. "This is kinda difficult with you guys just sitting there watching me."

Sasuke rolls his eyes. "Aren't you supposed to have mastered waterbending if you're already learning earthbending."

"Well yeah!" Naruto flails, waving his arms about, concentration completely abandoned. "I can do the big stuff no problem but the little fiddly stuff is hard. Iruka and Shizune are better at that! And you two staring _isn't_ helping!"

Sasuke's feet slide in the sand as he turns his back on Naruto. "Better?" He's so sarcastic Sakura is a little surprised he isn't breathing smoke again.

Naruto huffs and stares at Sakura until she rolls her eyes and turns around too. "Just hurry up, Naruto. We need to get moving."

"Fine! Fine!"

Another long moment passes in silence and just when Sakura is about to give up, turn around, and slug him, Naruto jumps to his feet with a triumphant shout, showering sand down onto her and Sasuke. Yup. He's going to have to die. Sorry world. Hopefully the next avatar turns out better.

"It's there! I knew it! I knew it!"

Five minutes later, after Sakura has opened a hole through the sand and Sasuke has blown it into a glass-lined tube so that Naruto can bend a stream up water safely up to them, and Sakura decides that maybe he can be allowed to live a bit longer. For now. She's going to make sure to bend every grain of sand she has to get out of her hair into his pants though.

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_**Let me know what you thought! The next chapter is a follow up to this one, the further adventures of the Lost Feral Dumbass Children, so stay tuned!**_


	7. Hey, Handsome (Survival Skills pt 2)

_**fictober promt 18. "Secrets? I love secrets."**_

_**wordcount: 1001**_

_**ft: Our favorite overpowered feral disaster children, some surprise guests.**_

* * *

Sakura is never, ever, going out in public with Naruto and Sasuke again. Ever.

Revitalized by what they'd obtained from Naruto's underground spring, the three of them made it to a village. If you could even call it that. Sakura lived in a small town before she started traveling with Master Tsunade and Shizune; this is more like a few huts clustered around a public fountain.

One of the huts was a sort of inn and they'd headed in there after they'd all but bathed in the public fountain. It was such a relief to be out of the sun that Sakura had let her guard down a bit.

That was her first mistake.

Her second was forgetting that Naruto and Sasuke in the general vicinity of other people never ended well. Or subtly. And really, the first clue should have been when the girl actually came over to them and draped herself over Naruto.

(Girls generally only come over to Naruto if they want something.)

Sakura realized something was going on when she looked up from her bowl of soup (supplied by Sasuke's coin-purse) to see Blondie leaning over Naruto's shoulder and winding her arms around his neck to say, high-pitched and giggly, "Well aren't you a tall drink of water, handsome!"

Sasuke, next to Naruto, has his constipated face on, which generally means he doesn't know what to do with the people encroaching on his space. One of the girl's hands whacked him in the face when she threw herself at Naruto.

"Hi!" Naruto says, sounding somewhat strangled.

"You're new around here aren't you?" The girl trills, wiggling her way in-between Naruto and Sasuke, nearly pushing Sasuke off his stool in the process. "What brings you to town."

"Traveling." Sasuke grunts, glaring at his own soup.

The girl ignores him. "So who _are_ you?" She smiles at Naruto.

Naruto is full-on stammering, face bright red. Sakura pushes the bowl of soup back and gets ready to stand up and find out just what is going on.

"Secret." Sasuke grunts. _Extremely_ annoyed. (He's very possessive of Naruto and it is equal parts cute and disturbing.)

"Ooooooo, secrets!" The girl says, smiling like a wolf-shark with too many teeth. "I _love_ secrets. I'll show you mine if you show me yours?" She leans in even closer to Naruto, predator's grin still fixed on her face. Sakura pushes over two grown men standing between her and her friends. She doesn't pause to apologize, just curses herself and her desire for a moment's peace that led her to take her soup to the other end of the bar.

"What makes you think we _want_ to see yours?" Sasuke grumbles, somewhat louder than before. The girl turns her wolf-shark smile on him.

"But I wasn't asking _you_ now was I? _Your_ _highness_."

Sakura throws caution to the wind and pulls the stone of the floor up, ready to throw the shattered pavement at the girl's head. Both Sasuke and the girl have pulled flame to their hands and Naruto has instinctively retreated to the top of the bar in a burst of air and is clearly gathering himself to launch an attack from above. Sakura reaches through the earth and pulls back to end this fight before it even begins.

And a gust of wind, not from Naruto, throws her stone weapons back to the floor, catching her by surprise. She barely has the time to locate the two boys closing in on them before they are upon her, the larger one swirling air around his arms and the smaller one ignoring her in favor of focusing on Sasuke.

His mistake.

The airbender pushes his advantage, using the air coiled around him the way Sakura has seen Shizune use water as a whip and she's sparred with Naruto enough to know that for all its invisibility, air can cut just as deeply as any other element. It's just harder to dodge.

The firebending girl is focused on Naruto again, and Sasuke, isn't moving. He's straining and jerking and his eyes are wide and terrified. "Bloodbender!"

_Oh_. Sakura leaps to the side, raising a shield of stone that is shattered by the airbenders attack. This won't work.

Sakura can't effectively fight what she can't see or sense. She can only defend. She's pinned down. Naruto is too easily put on the defensive by fire and Sasuke is already taken down unless…

Earthbending may not always require the same lung capacity as airbending or firebending, unless you have an inclination towards tunneling, but that has never stopped Sakura from being able to shriek loudly enough to be heard over the busiest crowd. And the inn is deserted now. The inhabitants fled the instant the rocks rose and flames appeared.

"_NARUTO! TAKE THE BLOODBENDER! SASUKE, SWITCH_!" And Sakura leaps for the firebending girl, her own teeth bared.

The only one allowed to pound her friends into the dirt is her. Certainly no uppity noble Fire girl. (And she clearly is noble. Her long hair bound up only into a ponytail, her fine clothes. She probably recognized Sasuke on sight.)

Behind her, she hears Naruto fly straight for the bloodbender. They'll be fine now, she knows. Naruto can combat bloodbending. His mysterious waterbending teacher made sure of it. And Sasuke can fight an airbender.

Time to focus on her own battle.

The other girl is taller than she. Better fed and rested. Not straight off a week of surviving on desert creatures and a handful of dried rations a day. But Sakura has been traveling with the avatar for almost a year now. And with Master Tsunade for two years before that. She is a fighter down to her bones and into her roots. She will not give ground to some brat with a pedigree.

* * *

_**That's right! It's INO-SHIKA-CHO!**_

_**Poor Asuma, he steps out for one minute and comes back to find that his set of feral disaster children have found a new set of feral disaster children to bond with via violence and trying to kill each other. And...isn't that Iruka's kid? And the**_** firelord's kid_?!_**_** (He knew they should have just stayed in the capital. Royal family drama or no.)**_

_**Let me know what you think!**_


	8. NOT A CHAPTER: NaNoWriMo Plans & Preview

Hello! Hello!

This is not an actual chapter but rather an announcement, which I hate doing but have no other way to communicate with y'all.

Fictober is over and NaNoWriMo has begun and this _does_ have an impact on my plans for this fic.

Namely, this one is being closed, more or less, and I will be doing my best to wrangle all the half-written bits I didn't post and all these I did to make an actual, coherent story.

I already have an outline and very solid plan so it will be happening! If you have anything from these that you would like to see explored, feel free to let me know in a review. I think I have all my tidbits included but there is no telling what I might have forgotten or just missed.

As I go, I will probably finish some of the partially-written installments and I will post them here if I do. Otherwise, keep an eye out for Book One of the series!

Thank you for reading, have a wonderful day.

Rain

P.S. Have a preview!

* * *

"How disappointing."

A crackle and small explosion of flame, just enough to send Iruka skidding across the floor to roll up against the cupboards, leaving Naruto open to Mizuki.

_Mizuki_. Iruka's brain stalls out for a split second, before he grits his teeth and, ignoring the pain in the fresh burns on his arms and legs, launches himself back across the room, only to skid to a halt before he's even really begun as a low wall of flame springs to life, separating him from Naruto. The most surprising thing about this is that, deep down. He isn't really surprised. He should probably be more in denial about the fact that his best, his _only_ friend, is after Naruto. But he isn't.

"Mizuki, stop." He yells, though he doesn't expect it to work. Mizuki has never really listened to 'stop' before.

And he doesn't this time, completely ignoring Iruka to focus on Naruto with a single-minded intensity, looming over the small boy crouched warily on the floor with wide, frightened eyes. Kurama clings to Naruto's shirt, snarling in distress.

"Imagine my surprise," Mizuki gloats, "when Naruto here starts spitting fire when we all know he's an airbender." He crouches down opposite Naruto, still taller, still bigger, still holding Iruka back with his wall of fire.

"The Avatar, practically dumped into my lap. Just _waiting_ for me to reach out and take him." He reaches out and trails his fingers through Naruto's hair, ignoring the way the boy jerks back to try and avoid him. "Do you know how much you are worth, Naruto. How many lords and generals and kings there are who would pay a _fortune_ just for the chance of getting their hands on you. The greatest weapon in the world. Just sitting here with no protection worth mentioning."

Naruto's eyes flicker to the side and he meets Iruka's gaze through the fire. Iruka doesn't even have time to process how lonely and afraid he looks before Mizuki is laughing and shifts his hand from Naruto's hair to his chin to yank his attention back to himself.

"Don't make me laugh!" He sneers, his voice full of laughter anyway. "Like _Iruka_ can help you now. Do you really think your precious teacher has a chance against anyone who will come for you? A half-trained airbender and a half-trained waterbender against the world?" His grip tightens on Naruto's face, fingers digging into his cheeks. Iruka slowly backs up, doing his best to ignore the pain from the burns and the way the charred remains of his sleeves tug on them.

"And Sarutobi? Hah! He is old and weak. His heir is a child who barely throws sparks! If they try and keep you here their holdings will be overrun within _days_."


End file.
